Football - Hoareau, Freminot placed in temporary charge of national team |05 April 2017

The Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) have confirmed that Basil Hoareau and Nigel Freminot will take temporary charge of the Seychelles national team for their upcoming games, after failing to appoint a full time coach.

Speaking to Sports NATION yesterday, the chief executive of the SFF, Georges Bibi, revealed that Revengers supremo Hoareau and St Louis’ Freminot will be in charge of the team in the first international match of the year, an African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifying match against Mauritius on April 21.

“We had advertised the post of national team head coach, but the response was poor, with only one unqualified applicant and so, with matches coming up, we decided that it was important to have someone leading the team in the meantime, while our search for a full time successor to Ralph Jean-Louis continues,” said Mr Bibi.

There were rumours circulating that Dutch coach Jan Mak would be taking over for a third time, which had caused some discontent among fans, due to his first two failed attempts at leading the team.

“It is true that we had approached Jan Mak for the job and he had actually agreed to take the helm, but due to the fact that his GOP does not allow him to take any other employment aside from his post with Côte d’Or, we therefore decided to look at other possibilities and made contact with Don Anacoura as well as Ahmed Abdou, before finally agreeing to place Hoareau and Freminot in charge,” added Mr Bibi.

Mr Bibi has also revealed that the two local coaches will be working alongside coaching advisor Steven Herbots, a Belgian who has joined the coaching team.

Seychelles will travel to Mauritius for the first leg of the Chan 2018 tournament on April 21 and are scheduled to play the return leg at Stad Linite on April 29.

The national side are also expected to face Libya in their first Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying Group E match in June.

Freminot and Hoareau have a tough task on their hands, but they both have a chance to prove themselves and get Seychelles back to winning ways in the upcoming games.

S.N